I didn’t understand that as a white bloke, born in an English speaking country to parents who valued education, that I had already won life’s lottery. I’m ashamed to admit that I genuinely believed for a while that success was merely a matter of talent and work. I’m Gen-X, and I’m very grateful to have been lucky enough to have experienced what I genuinely think might have been society’s golden years when I was able to enjoy them
Then I saw more of the world and grew up a bit. I grew to understand that talent and work definitely help, but they don’t help equally, and that there were people with immense talent who could work their arses off, and they would just never get the chance to shine like an average person from the world I knew
I worked, and I shone, and I made some money, and now I have a modest life in a small place because it’s more important to me to do stuff that helps the world rather than to rapaciously accumulate more, purely for its own sake
I plan to die without a single thing to my name, but I hope that what I have done and what I’ve tried to give back have made the world slightly less shitty
Imagine a path to the top of a mountain, the trail you describe is on a slow ascent towards the top, clearly marked, has rope guides to hang on to, rest areas, people to carry your backpack as needed.
For many others there is no trail, no guides, steep climbing, few if any rest areas, little to no help
This makes me think of a passage from “The Brothers Karamazov” where one of them goes on an extended rant, rejecting god. It boils down to the idea that the price of heaven isn’t worth it. All the suffering and cruelty on earth cannot be overseen by any god worth worshipping, or accepting reward from. I realize from your comment that this line of thinking encapsulates how I feel about capitalism. “I reject the ticket”.
I didn’t understand that as a white bloke, born in an English speaking country to parents who valued education, that I had already won life’s lottery. I’m ashamed to admit that I genuinely believed for a while that success was merely a matter of talent and work. I’m Gen-X, and I’m very grateful to have been lucky enough to have experienced what I genuinely think might have been society’s golden years when I was able to enjoy them
Then I saw more of the world and grew up a bit. I grew to understand that talent and work definitely help, but they don’t help equally, and that there were people with immense talent who could work their arses off, and they would just never get the chance to shine like an average person from the world I knew
I worked, and I shone, and I made some money, and now I have a modest life in a small place because it’s more important to me to do stuff that helps the world rather than to rapaciously accumulate more, purely for its own sake
I plan to die without a single thing to my name, but I hope that what I have done and what I’ve tried to give back have made the world slightly less shitty
Someone put it to me like this once.
Imagine a path to the top of a mountain, the trail you describe is on a slow ascent towards the top, clearly marked, has rope guides to hang on to, rest areas, people to carry your backpack as needed.
For many others there is no trail, no guides, steep climbing, few if any rest areas, little to no help
I chose to help the latter up the mountain.
This makes me think of a passage from “The Brothers Karamazov” where one of them goes on an extended rant, rejecting god. It boils down to the idea that the price of heaven isn’t worth it. All the suffering and cruelty on earth cannot be overseen by any god worth worshipping, or accepting reward from. I realize from your comment that this line of thinking encapsulates how I feel about capitalism. “I reject the ticket”.